How do you spell antisemitism? BDS

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To those who follow the worldwide effort to undermine and destroy Israel, BDS — the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement — exemplifies the new wave of anti-Semitism. This movement is active on California college campuses, including UC Santa Cruz, where a resolution was presented to the student council. It calls for UCSC to divest from American companies such as General Electric and Hewlett-Packard. The BDS movement is filled with hypocrisy, bigotry and deceit. It claims to be for a peaceful resolution of the Israel/Arab conflict. In reality it is a drive to destroy Israel.

Israel-critic Norman Finkelstein, whose Santa Cruz appearance once created a furor, criticized the BDS movement as a “hypocritical, dishonest cult led by dishonest gurus who want to selectively enforce the law and tries to cleverly pose as human rights activists, whereas their real goal is the destruction of Israel.”

The BDS movement fits the modern definition of anti-Semitism as outlined by the State Department and the European Union. They follow the 3 “Ds”: Demonization of Israel; Delegitimizing Israel; and the Double Standard.

At UCSC, the movement leaders introduced their resolution by comparing Israel to South Africa under Apartheid. Considering that Israeli Arabs serve in the Parliament, the judiciary, including the Supreme Court, and have all the civil rights as the majority Jewish population, the comparison is insulting to Israel and to the blacks of South Africa.

The pro-BDS resolution calls for divestment from companies that promote oppression based on national origin, religion, gender, race or sexual orientation.

The Palestinian Authority fits the bill. President Mahmoud Abbas in 2010 stated “I will never allow a single Israeli to live among us on Palestinian land.” The same year, the PLO ambassador to the U.S. added that “Any Jew who is in the border of Palestine will have to leave.” It is a capital offense in the Palestinian territories to sell land to Jews. How’s that for ethnic cleansing? On the issues of homosexuality and gender equality, the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip is notorious for its adherence to Sharia law. Females were banned from the Gaza Marathon, and homosexuality is a capital offense. In the Palestinian Authority homosexuals are persecuted and honor killings of women aren’t punished. Do the UCSC students promoting divestment advocate divestment from companies that profit from selling to the Palestinian Authority? No way!

The BDS movement is bigoted, hypocritical and inconsistent with the values of the University of California. Their tactics are to demean supporters of Israel, particularly Jewish students. Their goal is to undermine Israel’s legitimacy.

Those who support a two-state solution should oppose to this movement. Those who support the advancement of justice and human rights should oppose it. Only individuals who don’t believe that the Jewish people are entitled to a country of their own should support BDS because its goal is to eliminate Israel. I hope that the students who will vote on this resolution will see through the lies and misinformation and reject this divisive proposal.

How do you spell antisemitism? BDS

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